Book Review

Synopsis:
Kabbalistic interpretation of Genesis 1Summary: The Genesis One Code is an interpretation of Genesis one primarily based upon the Jewish mystical teachings of the Kabbalah. Although well written and interesting, the book's premise results in some rather awkward and forced
"reconciliation" of Genesis with science.

Rating:

Rich Deem

Introduction

Daniel Friedmann's book, The Genesis One Code
is a creative examination of the days of Genesis one from a Jewish
perspective. Does this interpretation solve all the science/theology problems
associated with attempting to reconcile Genesis one with the scientific record?

Method

The Genesis One Code
is an interesting interpretation of Genesis one, based upon some creative
use of extrabiblical sources. In order to reconcile the billions of years
that the universe has existed with the six days of Genesis one, author
Daniel Friedmann converts "human time" into "divine time" and "creation
time." According to Friedmann, a divine day is 1,000 years (Psalm 90:4),
making a "divine year" equal to 365,250 years in "human time." Of course,
Psalm 90:4 also indicates that 1,000 years are like a watch in the night,
being equivalent to only 4 hours. So, one could multiply that number by 6
(or just about any other number). Friedmann goes on to say that a "creation
day" is 7,000 "divine years." How this number was arrived at is not
explained in the text, but in a very long appendix. Having read the appendix
carefully, I could still not figure out exactly how that number was arrived
at, other than having to do with 7 cycles of 7 and the universe existing for
49,000 years (not sure where that number came from and how it relates to the
universe's real age of 13.8 billion years). So, according to Friedmann, a "creation day" is equivalent to
2.56 billion years (365,250 years/divine year X 7,000 divine years/creation
day). When one multiplies 2.56 billion by 6 creation days, one ends up with
over 15 billion years, which is somewhat over the value determined by
science. However, Friedmann has an answer for that—like human beings,
God only works during the daytime. Since the creation days begin at sunset,
God takes off the first 12 hours of creation day 1. In addition, the
creation ends on the 21st hour of the sixth day, since
Kabbalistic sources put Adam and Eve's sin at that time. So, in reality, the
God's creative days are only 5.375 days long. When multiplied by 2.56
billion years, we end up with 13.74 billion years for the age of the
universe (in human time). At the time of the writing of The Genesis One Code,
this was nearly the exact value given by the results of the WMAP satellite
(13.73 billion years). However, since that time, the Planck satellite has
come in with a new value that is much more accurate, but slightly older at
13.82 billion years. Maybe Friedmann can find a few more minutes to add to
the sixth creation day.

Problems

In establishing each creation day as a fixed period of time Friedmann puts himself into a bind in trying to match the Genesis account
with the scientific record of the universe's history. Instead of
interpreting Genesis 1:2-26 as all occurring on primordial earth, Friedmann
is forced to interpret days 1-3 as all occurring before the creation of the
solar system. Although potentially plausible for the first two days, the
third day is definitely a problem. Friedmann interprets the appearance of
dry land on the third day as the creation of nitrogen and the assembly of
the Milky Way's galactic disk. The verses from the third day that refer to
the creation of green plants and trees (Genesis 1:11-12) are conveniently ignored. However,
they are sneaked into the sixth day as having been created on the third day,
but not having sprouted until the sixth day. The problem with this scenario
is that, by Friedmann's timescale, the earth was not created until the
very end of the fourth day. Could plants be created on an earth that
did not exist and then not sprout until billions of years later?

CreationDay

Begin (gya)

End (gya)

1

0

(13.74)

1.28

(12.46)

2

1.28

(12.46)

3.84

(9.90)

3

3.84

(9.90)

6.40

(7.34)

4

6.40

(7.34)

8.96

(4.78)

5

8.96

(4.78)

11.52

(2.22)

6

11.52

(2.22)

13.74

(0)

The model has severe problems by the time we get to the fifth and sixth
creation days.
According to Friedmanns's model, the fifth day ends over 2 billion years ago
(see table, right), although Genesis clearly states that God created the
great sea creature and birds. So, the model is off from the science by at
least 2 billion years. The sixth day is worse. Because each day is 2.56
billion years long, each hour of each creation day consists of 107 million
years. Since God does not work in the dark, He didn't start working to
create Adam until hour 13, which is still about 1 billion years ago. With
each step in the process taking 107 million years, Adam was not completed
until 430 million years ago. At that point, Adam spent 107 million years
naming all the animals (even though most of them had not yet been created,
according to science). Friedmann also has a different interpretation of the
garden of Eden than most Christians would recognize. Although Genesis 2:15
says that Adam was created outside the garden and placed in it, Friedmann
explains that both Adam and Eve were created outside the garden, had
children Cain and Abel hundreds of millions of years before they sinned. The
fossil record is also clear that modern humans appeared less than a million
years ago.

A better alternative

I have been interested in different interpretations of Genesis as they
related to the historical record of the universe, which is why I accepted
Mr. Friedmann's invitation to review his book. However, with all the
problems I found in the Kabbalistic interpretation, I am going to stick to
my favorite alternative, which is the
day-age model. Briefly, the day-age interpretation says that the days of
Genesis are long, but unspecified periods of time, given from the
perspective of the God's Spirit hovering over the surface of earth's
primordial ocean (Genesis 1:2). The day-age interpretation offers a much
more literal interpretation of the Genesis one account without sacrificing
reconciliation with the scientific record.

Conclusions

The Genesis One Code
is an interesting, well-written examination of the Genesis one days from a
Jewish Kabbalistic perspective. Author Daniel Friedmann has a good handle on the
science behind modern cosmology and apparently, extensive knowledge of the
Kabbalistic literature. However, the basic premise of of converting creation
days into some fixed period of time corresponding to the historical timeframe of
the universe results in irreconcilable conflicts between the Genesis one account
and the record of science. In reconciling these conflicts, Friedmann nearly
always turns to a highly figurative interpretation of Genesis one. Since I have
no background in the Kabbalistic literature, I can't comment on that, but would
be interested in others' perspective on how The Genesis One Code
handles what must be at least somewhat diverse Kabbalistic interpretations of
Genesis one.